On December 2, 2024, the Bitcoin mining difficulty level updated its record high at 103.92 T. Since the last adjustment, it has increased by 1.59%, according to CloverPool.
The current average hash rate in the Bitcoin network is 850.16 EH/s.
Bitcoin mining difficulty and hash rate. Source: CloverPool.
Bitcoin mining difficulty is a metric that reflects how difficult it is to calculate the finding of a new block and receiving a mining reward. The main goal of this adjustment is to maintain the average block discovery time around 10 minutes, regardless of changes in the total computational power of the network.
The difficulty is adjusted approximately every 14 days (every 2016 blocks), independent of the network's hash rate.
If finding a block takes less than 10 minutes, the difficulty increases; if it takes longer, the difficulty decreases. Mining difficulty depends on the network's hash rate and the time spent finding previous blocks. The higher the mining difficulty, the lower the profitability.
The next difficulty adjustment is expected to occur in 14 days, around the night of December 16 to 17.
As a result of the increase in Bitcoin mining difficulty, the Bitcoin Hashprice Index temporarily decreased by 1.5%. This indicator represents the amount a Bitcoin miner can earn per 1 PH/s (petahash per second) of computing power per day.
Right after the difficulty adjustment on December 2, the index fell from $63.37 to $62.43. However, within a day, it rose by 2.5% — from $60.84.
As of 18:45 MSK on December 2, Bitcoin is trading around $97k. In the morning, the asset climbed to $98k but couldn't hold at that level. Over the day, BTC decreased by 0.2%.
The next difficulty adjustment is expected to occur in 14 days, around the night of December 16 to 17.